Dongbu Steel Co., Ltd. v. United States

635 F.3d 1363, 32 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2057, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 6603, 2011 WL 1184167
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedMarch 31, 2011
Docket2010-1271
StatusPublished
Cited by75 cases

This text of 635 F.3d 1363 (Dongbu Steel Co., Ltd. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dongbu Steel Co., Ltd. v. United States, 635 F.3d 1363, 32 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2057, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 6603, 2011 WL 1184167 (Fed. Cir. 2011).

Opinion

PROST, Circuit Judge.

This is a trade case involving the Department of Commerce’s (“Commerce’s”) practice of “zeroing” certain negative values when calculating duties in antidumping investigations and administrative reviews. Specifically, this case concerns Commerce’s use of zeroing in administrative reviews. Commerce has previously argued that the relevant statutory provision *1365 compels zeroing. This court has opined that the statutory text applicable to both investigations and administrative reviews — namely the term “exceeds” in 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35)(A) — is sufficiently ambiguous to defer to Commerce’s decision of whether or not to use zeroing in both stages of its antidumping procedures. Corus Staal BV v. Dep’t of Commerce, 395 F.3d 1343 (Fed.Cir.2005) (“Corns /”); Timken Co. v. United States, 354 F.3d 1334 (Fed.Cir.2004). We have upheld Commerce’s use of zeroing as reasonable no fewer than seven times over the past decade. 1

Under the facts of this case, we have come full circle as Commerce has now decided to stop using zeroing in investigations to comply with international treaty obligations while continuing to use it in administrative reviews. Surely, under appropriate circumstances, Commerce may change its position as to whether to apply zeroing. See, e.g., SKF USA Inc. v. United States, 630 F.3d 1365, 1373-74 (Fed.Cir.2011) (“SKF III”). Indeed, we have recently affirmed Commerce’s change in its zeroing policy affecting investigations. U.S. Steel Corp. v. United States, 621 F.3d 1351 (Fed.Cir.2010). The circumstances here, however, present a unique twist because Commerce’s compliance with international treaty obligations has lead it to interpret a single ambiguous statutory term inconsistently during different phases of an antidumping duty assessment, i.e., using zeroing for administrative reviews but no longer using zeroing for investigations. The issue presented in this case is whether Commerce is entitled to deference when it interprets 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35) inconsistently. We conclude that Commerce has failed to adequately explain why it has interpreted this statutory provision inconsistently. Accordingly, we vacate the decision of the Court of International Trade and remand for further proceedings.

Background

I

Dumping occurs when a foreign producer sells a product in the United States at a price that is below that producer’s sales price in the country of origin. If a United States industry believes that it is being injured by unfair competition through dumping, it may request the imposition of antidumping duties. Commerce conducts an investigation to determine whether and to what extent dumping is occurring. If the final determination is affirmative and the U.S. International Trade Commission determines that the domestic industry is being injured, an antidumping order is issued and antidumping duties are assessed. Foreign producers subject to antidumping orders may request a subsequent administrative review to determine (1) whether the extent of dumping has changed since the order went into effect or since the prior review period, and (2) the actual amount of antidumping to be assessed on the imports of subject merchandise from each producer being reviewed.

In antidumping proceedings, Commerce determines antidumping duties for a particular product by comparing the product’s “normal value” (the price a producer charges in its home market) with the export price of comparable merchandise. 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35)(A). We have previously recognized that Commerce uses different *1366 comparisons at the investigation stage than at the administrative review stage. Corns I, 395 F.3d at 1347; compare 19 U.S.C. § 1677f — 1(d)(1) (investigations), with 19 U.S.C. § 1675(a)(2)(A) (administrative reviews). Regardless of the stage, Commerce first calculates a “dumping margin” equal to “the amount by which the normal value exceeds the export price or constructed export price.” 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35)(A). Next, Commerce calculates a weighted-average dumping margin “by dividing the aggregate dumping margins determined for a specific exporter or producer by the aggregate ... constructed export prices of such exporter or producer.” Id. § 1677(35)(B). In this second step, Commerce has historically used a controversial methodology called “zeroing” whereby only positive dumping margins (i.e., margins for sales of merchandise sold at dumped prices) are aggregated and negative margins (i.e., margins for sales of merchandise sold at non-dumped prices) are given a value of zero. Alternatively, Commerce can use “offsetting” methodology whereby the positive and negative dumping margins are all aggregated to reduce the final margin.

This determination of dumping margins as provided in 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35)(A) is at the heart of the zeroing debate. Domestic industries and the government have previously argued that the use of the word “exceeds” in 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35)(A) limits the definition of “dumping margin” to positive numbers. In other words, they read the statute to require zeroing. Timken, 354 F.3d at 1340-41. Foreign producers have argued that Commerce’s use of zeroing is an unreasonable interpretation of the antidumping statute. Id. at 1340. This court has repeatedly addressed zeroing as it pertains to both investigations and administrative reviews. We have held that 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35)(A) is ambiguous with respect to zeroing, and we have deferred to Commerce’s reasonable interpretation of that statute to allow its use of zeroing in both investigations and administrative reviews.

We first considered Commerce’s zeroing policy in the context of administrative reviews in Timken. Applying Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-43, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984), we examined the language of 19 U.S.C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Icdas Celik Enerji Tersane ve Ulasim, A.S. v. United States
429 F. Supp. 3d 1353 (Court of International Trade, 2020)
Dillinger France S.A. v. United States
350 F. Supp. 3d 1349 (Court of International Trade, 2018)
Dong-A Steel Co. v. United States
337 F. Supp. 3d 1356 (Court of International Trade, 2018)
Shenzhen Xinboda Industrial Co., Ltd. v. United States
2017 CIT 166 (Court of International Trade, 2017)
Apex Frozen Foods Private Ltd. v. United States
862 F.3d 1322 (Federal Circuit, 2017)
Jacobi Carbons AB and Jacobi Carbons, Inc. v. United States
222 F. Supp. 3d 1159 (Court of International Trade, 2017)
Clearon Corp. v. United States
2015 CIT 91 (Court of International Trade, 2015)
United States v. American Home Assurance Co.
789 F.3d 1313 (Federal Circuit, 2015)
Samsung Electronics Co. v. United States
72 F. Supp. 3d 1359 (Court of International Trade, 2015)
Zhaoqing Tifo New Fibre Co. v. United States
60 F. Supp. 3d 1328 (Court of International Trade, 2015)
JTEKT Corp. v. United States
49 F. Supp. 3d 1338 (Court of International Trade, 2015)
NTN Bearing Corp. of America v. United States
46 F. Supp. 3d 1375 (Court of International Trade, 2015)
JTEKT Corp. and Koyo Corp. of U.S.A v. United States
37 F. Supp. 3d 1326 (Court of International Trade, 2014)
JBF Rak LLC v. United States
997 F. Supp. 2d 1350 (Court of International Trade, 2014)
Tianjin Magnesium Int'l Co. v. United States
2014 CIT 63 (Court of International Trade, 2014)
Shenzhen Xinboda Industrial Co. v. United States
976 F. Supp. 2d 1333 (Court of International Trade, 2014)
Tianjin Wanhua Co., Ltd. v. United States
961 F. Supp. 2d 1335 (Court of International Trade, 2014)
Apex Exports v. United States
2013 CIT 158 (Court of International Trade, 2013)
SeAH Steel Corp. v. United States
938 F. Supp. 2d 1325 (Court of International Trade, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
635 F.3d 1363, 32 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2057, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 6603, 2011 WL 1184167, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dongbu-steel-co-ltd-v-united-states-cafc-2011.